Posts published by riffee.lev

The Local profiles Manny Rodriguez, president of the Felix Millan Little League, which for 35 years has helped youngsters in the East Village and Lower East Side find refuge from the perils of the streets.

The East Village is in the midst of a transition phase. Old buildings have been threatened and new ones are scheduled to rise, much to the chagrin of many locals. But what kind of development is positive and why, recently, have some seemingly less favorable projects been allowed to continue in the East Village? The Local caught up with Anne Guiney, executive director of the Institute for Urban Design, and asked for her thoughts.

More than two decades after the death of the East Village scene, a new movement is underway south of Houston in the once tenement-dominated Lower East Side. Once again, the east side of Manhattan is the purveyor of some of New York’s most avant-garde art, but this time without the self-destructive turmoil that branded the East Village scene of the 80’s. Before 2005, only a handful of galleries existed in the Lower East Side, but according to a map handed out at the New Museum, there are now 71 in the neighborhood.

Ronald Sosinski, 62, is the director of The Proposition art gallery at 2 Extra Place and an East Village resident for more than twenty years. He and his business partner, Ellen Donahue, opened E.M. Donahue Gallery for Contemporary Art on East 11th Street between Avenues A and B in 1985 and followed the art scene to SoHo in 1987 and to Chelsea in 2002, where the space was renamed The Proposition. After more than twenty years away from the East Village, Mr. Sosinski and Ms. Donahue reopened the gallery on Extra Place (First Street just off of Bowery) in 2010. In this video, Mr. Sosinski talks about The Proposition’s current show and new location.

How Does Your School Stack Up?

Hello, Neighbors

The Local was a journalistic collaboration designed to reflect the richness of the East Village, report on its issues and concerns, give voice to its people and create a space for our neighbors to tell stories about themselves. It was operated by the students and faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to ensure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards. Read more »